Just to clarify: Folks buy them in the US as well, much like you are likely to be able to rent an entire house with a yard. You'd miss this if you, say, lived in small-to-medium sized housing in the US simply because there isn't a lack of land in cities surrounded by farmland. But if you go to Indianapolis and especially Chicago, you can own an apartment. Of course, they might not call it an apartment, row house, or whatever - it might be called a condo instead.